A great ascetic and leader of monks, St. Gerasimos was from the Egyptian Thebaid and lived as a strict monk. At first he had been leaning towards the Monophysite Heresy, but St. Euthymios helped him see the mistake of this heretical view, and renounce it. He attended the Fourth Ecumenical Council in a.d. 451 at Chalcedon and was a great defender of the Orthodox Faith and Traditions there against the Monophysites and their heresy.

In a.d. 460 St. Gerasimos established a strict monastery near the Jordan close to the wilderness near Jericho with seventy monks. They ate simply–bread, water, and dates–and slept on reed mats. Their cells didn’t have doors on them. Once when walking near the Jordan, St. Gerasimos came across a lion roaring in pain, as it had a large splinter embedded in its paw. Having compassion on the lion, St. Gerasimos made the Sign of the Cross and removed the splinter. The lion became tame and followed the saint back to his monastery, and lived on bread and vegetables. The lion was wrongly accused of eating the monastery’s donkey. When St. Gerasimos died, the lion laid down on his grave and died of grief.